Sacrifice
by Scanndalus
Summary: Naruto was right. If he and Sasuke fought, they both would die. He just didn't realize that he would still be right if they fought together instead of against each other. Sakura gets to them right after they died. What would she do? How was she supposed to protect her precious people?


Author's note: This is my first foray into emotional writing. I hope it comes off well. I don't like character bashing. Early on it will seem like I am Sakura bashing, but I'm not. I'm trying to convey what I think Sakura's emotions would be in that situation.

Also, I tried to use Japanese names for jutsus and English translations in parenthesis afterwards. I do not know Japanese and used an online translation tool. If you do speak Japanese and see that I've made a mistake, let me know. I'd love to put the correct words in my story.  
Please enjoy!

* * *

"Naruto! Sasuke! No!"

They were dead before they even hit the ground. Sakura knew it. Those two bakas knew that the only way to kill Madara was to sacrifice themselves. The resulting explosion from the collision of Naruto's Sage Mode and Kyuubi-enhanced "Fuuton (Wind Style): Rasenshuriken" and Sasuke's "Raiton: Denki no Jikkou" (Lightning Style: Electric Execution) completely destroyed Madara beyond anything the Edo Tensei Jutsu (Reanimation Technique) could restore.  
Maybe if Sakura had been able to feed some more of her chakra to them through Katsuyu, they would have survived.

Maybe if she had been able to destroy the Jubi sooner and join them, they could have killed Madara together and her teammates would have survived. Maybe if she wasn't such a loser, she could have been strong enough to be their equal. She hated herself.

Sakura skidded to halt next to their fallen bodies. She formed some hand signs and then started feeding her chakra into her fallen friends. She knew she was too late. She knew there was nothing to do. She knew she had failed.  
She did it anyway. If she had learned anything from that dobe Naruto, it was to never give up.

Tears streamed down her careworn face. She was exhausted. It didn't matter.  
She poured her love into them both. She looked at Naruto's face.

* * *

Back in the Academy, Naruto was the loudest kid in the class. Secretly, she thought his antics were cute. He always did just the wrong thing at just the right time. He was dead last, but no one could ever just pass over him without a thought. Naruto demanded everyone's attention.

His pranks surpassed any ever committed in the village before him. His teachers didn't think that anyone would ever be known as a bigger prankster than the blonde haired troublemaker. Well, at least they hoped no one would.  
He tried hard to fit in. That's truly what his pranks were about. None of the parents would let their children play with Naruto. But when he played a prank, everyone laughed with him. For that brief second, he wasn't alone. Life didn't hurt quite so much.

But after the laughter died down, he was alone again. The class clown would face the music (after a prolonged chase by the teachers or the Anbu) and serve his punishment.

Sakura always loved Naruto's pranks. She wouldn't admit it at the time, but the lovable loser was kind of cute. But all of the girls hated him. She never wanted to be hated again like she was before Ino protected her, so she never said out loud that she liked him. Eventually, those feelings went away.

* * *

Sakura looked over at the still form of Sasuke. He had never looked so peaceful. Gone were his worries. Gone was his hate. She no longer felt the infatuation she had for him at the Academy.

* * *

All of the girls loved Sasuke. He was dark and handsome and just sooooooo coooooool!

Sakura didn't really understand, but hey, everyone else loved him. She should too! Eventually, she convinced herself that she actually did love him.

Sasuke never gave any of the girls a second glance. Most of the time, he never gave them a first glance. He was so driven. The raven haired Uchiha poured his soul into every lesson. Whether he was practicing camouflage techniques, throwing shuriken, or taking a spelling test, Sasuke gave as much effort as he could possibly give.

No one really understood what drove him. Sakura certainly didn't understand at the time. She just admired him.

* * *

Sakura looked up from her fallen teammates and saw her sensei staggering towards her. Kakashi was haggard. His mask was torn and he had lost his flak jacket somewhere. She smiled as she thought about her first day as his student.

* * *

They had passed the infamous bell test. Sakura still couldn't believe that she wasn't about to be summarily executed for breaking the rules of the test. Her teacher had made a complete 180. Kakashi-sensei even looked proud of the three of them.

Over time, she didn't learn very many jutsus from her teacher. But she did learn one important lesson. You never give up on family. The scarecrow-like jounin shinobi had learned that lesson the hard way. He never let an opportunity pass when he could make sure that they understood that lesson.

The spike-haired sensei was like a surrogate father to their little family. Naruto, who never knew his family, Sasuke, who lost every member of his clan, and Sakura, who had a family, but seemed to be lost somewhere inside the ranks of shinobi of the village, all looked up to him. He cared for them. Each one of them knew that he would always be there for them. They also knew that they would be there for him. They owed him more than they could ever repay.

Kakashi-sensei taught them how to be a family.

* * *

Sakura could feel her chakra reserves flagging. She didn't know how much longer she had. People were starting to take notice of the downed team. As they were able, they moved towards them.

* * *

Sakura was a pretty little girl, even if she did have a wide forehead. She had bright green eyes that absorbed every detail in her textbooks and always knew just what questions to ask her instructors so that she could figure out how to be the best kunoichi she could be. She always wanted to do her best.

One day, she hoped to be an incredible ninja and to make her village proud.

* * *

Sakura shook off her tears as her friends finally made it to her and her late teammates.

Ino placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Sakura. It's too late. They're gone. You've done what you could."

The pink haired shinobi could feel Ino's hot tears hit her bare neck. She shook her head, refusing to stop. "I'm not done. I can go a little longer."

The fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade spoke into Sakura's ear. "It's over, Sakura-chan. You can't do anymore." Lady Tsunade started to pull Sakura away, when Sakura roughly pulled out of her grasp.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama. I can't stop now that I've started." Sakura refused to stop staring at her fallen brothers. "This technique can't be stopped."

Kakashi gasped. "Sakura! No! How could you even know that technique?"

The Hokage looked at Kakashi with a puzzled eye. "What technique are you talking about, Kakashi? Explain yourself!"

Kakashi stared at Sakura, then he explained to Lady Tsunade. "Hokage-sama, when we went to rescue the Kazekage, Gaara, from the Akatsuki, there was an elder that assisted us, Chiyo of the Sand. She was a puppet master and the grandmother of the Akatsuki member, Sasori. As you know, Gaara was already dead when we got there. After we defeated the Akatsuki, Chiyo-san was so moved by Naruto's love of his friend that she performed a technique that brought him back to life. To do so, she fed all of her chakra into his dead body. It killed her. But even with that consequence, she needed Naruto's help to complete the technique. She didn't have enough chakra."

Kakashi looked back to Sakura. "Sakura, how did you learn her technique? And you do realize that you don't have enough chakra to revive one of them, let alone both, right?"

Sakura smiled. "Kakashi-sensei, it was only five hand signs. It wasn't that hard to memorize it. I didn't think I would ever need to use it, but I memorized it anyway, just in case."

Lady Tsunade was floored. How was this happening? She couldn't lose all three of them, not like this! "Sakura. How? As Kakshi said, you should know you don't have enough chakra. You've thrown your life away."

Sakura looked into her master's tear-filled eyes and smiled, light flashing off the diamond that had formed on her forehead just prior to the final stages of the battle. "No, Tsunade-sama. I haven't. You taught me your secret technique, the Hyaku-Gou (100 Healings) Seal. I've been saving my chakra for three years in order to do something special. I'm going to save these two!"

A silence fell over those assembled.

Ino buried her face in Choji's chest, her sobs wracking her body. Choji stroked her blonde hair in an attempt to console her, but stared fixedly at Shikamaru. If someone could come up with something to fix this situation, it would be the heir to the Nara clan. As if he could read the Akamichi's mind, Shikamaru looked at him and just shook his head.

TenTen and Lee stared at their sensei, hoping he would tell them something to do. Tears streamed down his face. He opened his mouth to speak and only a croaking noise came out. He tried again to no avail. He looked at his two remaining pupils, pain evident in his face. They had lost a teammate today as well. None of the three could deal with this pain in addition to the mourning they were already in. Lee was worse than the other two. Not only did he lose his rival and best friend today, he would also lose the only girl that he had ever loved. He would never get the chance to win her heart. A part of him died right there.

Kiba had never been known for his emotional stability. He wanted to howl in grief. He stalked back and forth, unable to think. Hinata wanted to try to calm him down, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Team 7. Naruto-kun lay there dead. She was almost having a breakdown just thinking about never hearing Naruto's infectious laugh. Then she heard what Kakashi-sensei and Lady Tsunade were talking about. She couldn't believe what they were saying. Sakura was going to save Naruto! Then she understood how it was going to happen. She didn't want Sakura to die. She would never be able to forget this. She would owe Sakura forever. She looked at Shino's stoic face. He nodded in understanding and wrapped an arm around the Hyuuga's shoulders. She dropped her chin to her chest and hugged her arms around herself and wept. Shino stared at the top of her head, feeling her pain. He didn't need to talk to help her. He was sure that if he tried, he would weep as well.

Gaara stared in amazement. He knew exactly what was happening. He openly wept as one of his dear people saved the life of his best friend in the world. His sister, Temari, hugged him and wept beside him. His brother placed his hand on Gaara's shoulder. Gaara appreciated their love and accepted it. He gave his brother and sister a grateful look.

The diamond on Sakura's forehead extinguished and she could feel the drain on her chakra network. She knew she was almost finished, but had no doubts that it would work.

Sakura looked up at her friends. "Tsunade-shisou, thank you for teaching me. I hope I made you proud."

Lady Tsunade nodded and tears fell down her cheeks. "You have been the best apprentice any teacher could have."

Sakura looked at Kakashi and smiled at him. "Kakashi-sensei, please take care of Sasuke-kun. He will need someone to be there for him. And we both know that Naruto annoys him." she said with a giggle.

"Of course, Sakura-chan. I will." He smiled at her through his torn mask and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura looked at Hinata. "Hinata, please take care of Naruto. You know him better than anyone else could. Don't take a minute for granted. I believe in you."

Hinata could have been knocked over with a feather. She shook off her shock and stood straight. Bowing, she said, "I will, Sakura. Thank you."  
Sakura smiled. She looked around at everyone. "Thank you all for loving us. Take care of each other. I love you all."

Sakura looked down at her two brothers. She didn't say anything out loud. She used the last of her chakra to leave an impression on them.

"Naruto, Sasuke, thank you for being my friend. Thank you for supporting me. Sasuke, I forgive you for running away from the village. Work hard and earn everyone's trust again. Naruto, help him to get the village's love again.

"I've always been following behind you two. I've never been able to catch up. I finally figured it out. I didn't need to catch up. You two never left me behind. We supported each other. You did the things that I couldn't. Now, I get to do the thing that you couldn't. My job was to hold you both up.

"I love you both. Please forgive me for leaving you two before your story was completed. I needed to do this.

"Take care of the village and all of our precious people. You are my two most precious people. Thank you for being there for me. I love you."

Sakura fell.

Her arms laid across her brothers and she lay between them. As her last breath escaped her chest, both boys opened their eyes...

* * *

It rained at the memorial service. All of those that fell in the Fourth Great Shinobi War were represented by their pictures on a stand. 43,872 Konoha shinobi fell in the war. Sakura's picture was just one of many. The entire village was standing and weeping as the Hokage read off the names of each one of the fallen heroes. The entire village was there, except for two.

Naruto and Sasuke sat on the stumps on the Team 7 training ground. Neither said a word. They both knew what Sakura had said to each of them. They dwelled on their own thoughts.

Naruto sat still enough to draw nature energy and enter Sage Made had he wanted to. Sasuke rubbed two pebbles together, creating a small grating noise. Neither cared that they were soaking wet.

Eventually, they both stood and faced each other.

"Was it worth it, dobe?" the raven haired Uchiha asked his companion.  
Naruto didn't answer at first. He shook his head. "I want to say no. But Sakura would come back just to knock me into next week."

Sasuke smiled. "She would. I wish that she could."

Naruto gripped his fist tightly, making his knuckles crack. Then he relaxed them. "We've got to get stronger, Teme. We've got to be as strong as Sakura if we want to be able to protect this village and our precious ones."

Sasuke activated his sharingan. "Damn straight we do."

They both entered into defensive stances and started to spar.

* * *

Author's note: thank you for reading! Please review and let me know what you think.


End file.
